Broadcasting International Learning

Abstract

Participation in a study abroad program provides international experiential learning opportunities that greatly enhance students’ preparedness for analyzing and taking on today’s changing, evermore- global world. Apart from easier access to international traveling, another key aspect of globalization is related to advances in technology and communication. This paper examines the use of communication technologies by study abroad participants in the form of maintaining a web log while in the field, and the effect of this tool on (1) students’ processing of their own experiences and of the impact the study abroad program had on them and (2) international learning by other members of the home campus community who accessed the web log. The data for this project was collected in the Summer of 2010, when I co-organized and conducted a three-week long study abroad program for twenty-six University of Houston students in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania. As part of the program I taught a course on the Political Economy of Europe, with teaching methods including site visits to government agencies, corruption watchdog NGOs, local businesses, and scholarly institutions, as well as simulation projects based on information obtained during the site visits. An important component of the course and the program consisted of maintaining a weblog of field experiences, on a website accessible to all University of Houston students.